Systems and methods for auto-generation of telemedicine clinics

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure provides systems and methods for automatically generating telemedicine platforms for providers. A marketplace of healthcare services and associated pricing and other terms is made available to employers, individuals, and/or health insurance companies. Employers and/or health insurance companies can select a subset of options from the marketplace to create a customizable sub-marketplace of healthcare services to offer to their employees or insureds. Providers may modify their offerings in the marketplace to fit within guidelines established by the employers or health insurance companies to be automatically included in the sub-marketplace of healthcare services.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of and claims priority to PCT PatentApplication No. PCT/US18/17695 filed on Feb. 9, 2018, titled “Systemsand Methods for Auto-Generation of Telemedicine Clinics,” which claimspriority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 to U.S. Provisional Patent ApplicationNo. 62/457,745 filed on Feb. 10, 2017, titled “Systems and Methods forAuto-Generation of Telemedicine Clinics,” both of which are herebyincorporated by reference in their entireties, including any appendicesthereto.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure relates to systems and methods for automatic generationof unique telemedicine clinics. Specifically, the systems and methodsdescribed herein allow a healthcare provider to automatically generatemultiple telemedicine clinics that offer different services, products,and pricing structures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Non-limiting and non-exhaustive embodiments of the disclosure aredescribed herein, including various embodiments of the disclosure withreference to the figures listed below.

FIG. 1A illustrates a block diagram of three telemedicine clinics beinggenerated that correspond to three national provider identifier (NPI)numbers, according to one embodiment.

FIG. 1B illustrates services offered by the provider associated with thefirst NPI number for a particular healthcare plan.

FIG. 1C illustrates services offered by the provider associated with thesecond NPI number for the particular healthcare plan.

FIG. 1D illustrates services offered by the provider associated with thethird NPI number for the particular healthcare plan.

FIG. 2 provides a graphical illustration of the types of entities forwhich a unique telemedicine clinic may be created to accommodate eachentity's uniquely contracted pricing and approved services, according tovarious embodiments.

FIG. 3 illustrates a graphical representation of a provider associatedwith four auto-generated telemedicine clinics, according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 4 illustrates a screenshot of a provider's unique telemedicineportal for patients with ABC insurance, according to one embodiment.

FIG. 5 illustrates a screenshot of the same provider's uniquetelemedicine portal for patients with United insurance, according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram of a customized telemedicine portalautomatically generated based on an available health plan, according toone embodiment.

FIG. 7 illustrates a screenshot of a provider's unified electronichealth record (EHR) combining information from all of the uniquetelemedicine clinics, according to one embodiment.

FIG. 8 illustrates a screenshot of a provider's schedule integrated withinformation from all of the provider's unique telemedicine clinics,according to one embodiment.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example portal for initiating a telemedicineconsultation, according to one embodiment.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example of a telemedicine video consultation,according to one embodiment.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example of auto-generated clinics that becomeactive when claimed by a provider.

FIG. 12 illustrates a user interface for a provider of any of a widevariety of professional service types to register with the AZOVA™platform.

FIG. 13 illustrates another embodiment of a user interface for aprovider of any of a wide variety of professional service types toregister with the AZOVA™ platform.

FIG. 14 illustrates a user interface for assigning individuals variousroles with the AZOVA™ platform, according to various embodiments.

FIG. 15 illustrates a user interface for customizing and configuringappointment types, according to various embodiments.

FIG. 16A illustrates a user interface with various appointment types,prices, and options for customization, according to one embodiment.

FIG. 16B illustrates an extension of the user interface in FIG. 16A.

FIG. 17A illustrates a user interface for offering a concierge packageprovider service on the marketplace, according to one embodiment.

FIG. 17B illustrates an extension of the user interface in FIG. 17A,according to one embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

This disclosure provides systems and methods for automaticallygenerating telemedicine clinics that are customized based on applicableprovider(s) and payer(s). Details and examples are provided withreference to the figures below. Various embodiments of this disclosurecan be incorporated into, used by, and/or used in conjunction with oneor more of the embodiments or combination of embodiments described inU.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/597,102 titled “TelemedicinePlatform with Integrated e-Commerce and Third Party Interfaces,” filedon May 16, 2017 (the “'102 application” and/or PCT Application No.PCT/US2016/020964 titled “Telemedicine Platform and Associated Serviceswith Third-Party Interfaces,” filed on Mar. 4, 2016, both of which arehereby incorporated by reference in their entireties. Similarly, theinfrastructure and underlying principles described the incorporatedapplications can be used to implement and/or augment the systems andmethods described herein.

Individuals seeking healthcare may attempt to obtain healthcare directlyfrom a provider, such as a family practitioner, pediatrician,dermatologist, gastrointestinal physician, gynecologist, dentist,orthodontist, ophthalmologist, etc. Providers may be individualproviders, or providers that are part of a healthcare facility, such asmulti-practitioner office, a hospital, an urgent care facility, or thelike.

Rather than seek out an individual provider, individuals may participatein a group health insurance plan. Group health insurance plans mayprovide fixed prices, discounted services, deductible-based services,copay-based services and/or the like to a group of individuals seekinghealthcare. The group health insurance entity may contract with specificproviders to the exclusion of others. The contracted providers may agreeto discounted rates and/or fee caps in exchange for payment and workflowassurances from the group health insurance entity.

Providers have an interest in offering telehealth consultations andother telemedicine offerings, such as those described in the '102application. However, individual providers and even groups of providers(e.g., a doctor's office, hospital, consortium of providers, etc.) maynot have the technical expertise to operate the hardware and softwarenecessary to operate a telemedicine platform. Moreover, health insurancecompanies and/or employers may desire some level of uniformity intelemedicine offerings among tens, hundreds, or even thousands ofproviders within their network.

In some circumstances, individuals seeking healthcare may obtainhealthcare benefits from an employer. The employer may directly contractwith healthcare providers for discounted services and directly pay allor a portion of their employees' healthcare costs. In other embodiments,the employer may contract with a group health insurance entity toprovide the employer's employees with healthcare coverage of one form oranother.

Healthcare practitioners may contract with multiple employers and/orgroup health insurance entities and/or sub-programs thereof. As aspecific illustration, a group of five healthcare practitioners may bepart of an urgent care clinic. The urgent care clinic may agree to afirst fee schedule with a first health insurance company and a secondfee schedule with different terms with a second health insurancecompany. A dermatologist may contract with the second health insurancecompany only.

A first employer may contract with the first health insurance company toprovide its employees with healthcare through the urgent care clinic,but its employees could not utilize the dermatologist's services throughtheir employer-provided healthcare coverage. A second employer maycontract with the second health insurance company, and its employeescould utilize the services of both the urgent care clinic and thedermatologist at the agreed-upon rates in the second fee schedule.

The urgent care clinic may have different rates and rules in the firstfee schedule with the first health insurance company than it does withthe second fee schedule with the second health insurance company. Theurgent care clinic may have different fee schedules with dozens ofinsurance companies. One or more companies (e.g., non-insurance relatedbusiness entities) may also directly negotiate a fee schedule with theurgent care clinic. The variations in terms, rates, and rules furthercomplicates the situation and makes it very difficult for the urgentcare clinic to operate a single telemedicine platform.

Moreover, no single health insurance company can develop a workabletelemedicine platform for all of the providers within its network,because any such telemedicine platform would not adequately meet theneeds of providers that have patients covered by other health insurancecompanies that pay different rates and reimburse a different subset ofhealthcare services. As a specific example, a provider may acceptpatients that are covered by a first insurance company. That firstinsurance company may pay the provider for a first set of servicesaccording to a first fee schedule. The provider may also accept Medicaidpatients, Medicare patients, uninsured (cash-paying) patients, andpatients from a second insurance company—each of which may allow forreimbursement of different services at different rates. A telemedicineplatform offered by the first insurance company is not sufficientlycomprehensive for the provider.

Accordingly, the industry has failed to provide a universally workabletelemedicine platform except for in the rare instances in whichproviders contract exclusively with a single health insurance company,or no health insurance company at all. Such an arrangement detrimentallyreduces the provider's freedom to offer services to a wide variety ofpatients, and reduces competition between providers to the detriment ofpatients.

The presently described systems and methods provide an electronicmarketplace for providers to offer telemedicine services to patients,health insurance companies, and/or employers through a unifyingtelemedicine platform that provides a single provider portal connectedto dozens of distinct telemedicine clinics—each of which may be uniquelybranded, associated with unique URLs, and offer differing servicesaccording to differing price schedules. Additional functionalities andthe underlying infrastructure of the telemedicine platform are describedin detail in the '102 application.

In some embodiments, providers may offer telemedicine services only tohealth insurance companies and/or employers, and not directly topatients. In other embodiments, providers may offer services only topatients directly, only to customers of health insurance companies, oronly to employees through an employer.

Providers (individually or through a multi-provider practice such as ahospital) may create (or claim and customize as described below) anonline clinic via the AZOVA™ platform. Each healthcare provider or groupof providers may customize the offerings, prices, availability etc. asthey see fit. The healthcare providers may establish their own rates,rules, discounts, etc. and determine which types of services will beavailable via telemedicine sessions on a telemedicine platform, andwhich types of services may be scheduled on the platform but requirein-person visits. Accordingly, the system facilitates the creation of amarketplace of offerings from hundreds or thousands of providers with awide variety of specialties and price points. The providers may offerdifferent prices for individual care and group-rate care.

In some embodiments, an individual may browse the marketplace and selecta desired service, schedule a telemedicine consultation, and/or conductthe telemedicine consultation via the telemedicine platform. The patientmay pay the provider directly, receive a bill, or pay via thetelemedicine platform. In some embodiments, the telemedicine platformmay guarantee payment to the provider. In other embodiments, thetelemedicine platform may simply facilitate the marketplace exchange andenable the telemedicine consultation, leaving the provider responsiblefor collecting or receiving payment.

In other embodiments, a health insurance company may evaluate theprovider offerings in the marketplace and select a subset of theofferings to generate a sub-marketplace. For example, the healthinsurance company may select a subset of the offerings from providersthat agree to provide group discounts, or are under a defined fee capfor specific services, and/or provide a desired breadth of serviceswithin threshold price ranges. The health insurance company may thenmarket the sub-marketplace of approved providers and offerings to itscustomers.

Similarly, an employer may desire to pay for all or a portion of itsemployees' healthcare costs. In various embodiments, the telemedicineplatform may evaluate the claims history of the employees of theemployer to determine the number, location, and types of healthcarepractitioners needed. The telemedicine platform may then evaluate themarketplace (or allow the employer to manually evaluate the marketplace)to identify suitable providers within a target price range. The employermay select a subset of the offerings in the general marketplace tocreate a sub-marketplace of provider services that it can offer to itsemployees.

From an employee's perspective, her employer may appear to have atelemedicine platform that allows her to select from a subset ofproviders offering various services, some of which can be provided via atelemedicine consultation. The employee may have various options thatare all free or subject to differing copays or deductibles. The employeemay be able to select from multiple providers for a particular service,or only a single provider (i.e., individual provider or group ofproviders in a specific office or hospital) for each of a wide varietyof services. In some embodiments, the employee may be able to selectproviders outside of the employer's specific subset of providersservices for an additional fee or without any financial help from theemployer. In other embodiments, the telemedicine platform may limit theemployee's options to those explicitly selected as part of theemployer's subset of offerings.

In some embodiments, an employee of an employer or a customer of ahealthcare company may be able to search an online directly of servicesavailable to them and sort and filter them as desired. For example, theentire marketplace may include 5,000 healthcare providers. Thehealthcare company may have selected only 1,100 of those 5,000 forinclusion in their sub-marketplace. An employer may contract with thehealthcare company to provide healthcare coverage to its employees. Theemployees become customers of the healthcare company. From an individualcustomer's perspective, he or she is able to search a customized portalbranded or co-branded for the healthcare company and/or the employer ofthe customer. The customized portal with the sub-marketplace ofofferings may allow for searching and filtering of the 1,100 providersin the sub-marketplace. Once the customer identifies a desired service,the customer may initiate a real-time telemedicine consultation orschedule a future telemedicine or in-person consultation.

From the employer's perspective, the employer can offer its employees acustom suite of healthcare services at fee schedules and other termsthat it selects and/or approves. The employer can use the marketplaceprovided by the telemedicine platform to negotiate rates and serviceterms directly with healthcare providers instead of through a healthinsurance company. In some embodiments, the employer can appear to offertelemedicine consultations to its employees through the telemedicineplatform (e.g., a skinned version or portal of the AZOVA™ platformcustomized for the specific employer). The employer may restrict theavailability of some, more expensive, healthcare provider specialistsuntil recommendations are received from less expensive generalhealthcare providers.

In one embodiment, the system analyzes the historical claims of theemployees of an employer. The system then recommends a subset of theservices available on the marketplace to meet the specific needs of theemployees based on the historical claims. The system then provides anemployer-branded portal accessible to the employer's employees thatallows them to schedule telemedicine consultations and/or in-personconsultations with the recommended subset of providers. Variousfinancial arrangements are possible between the providers, thetelemedicine platform, the employer, and the employees that may includemonthly premiums, negotiated group discounts, deductibles, copayments,capitated payment schedules, guaranteed minimum payments, on-call fees,commissions, payment processing fees, brokerage fees, etc.

From an insurance company's perspective, providers are available forinclusion in their provider network with little or no transaction costwith uniform telemedicine service offerings. Some employers and/orindividuals may decide to obtain health insurance through a healthinsurance company under a traditional model. Traditionally, the healthinsurance company has one or more provider networks that it offers toits customers (employers or individuals). The health insurance companytypically negotiates discounted rates, fee schedules, availability,service guarantees, etc. with each provider in each of its providernetworks. The systems and methods described herein allow the healthinsurance company to browse the marketplace of healthcare offerings fromvarious provides and select them for inclusion within a specificprovider network. The telemedicine platform enables the health insurancecompany to create a branded sub-marketplace of provider offerings thatit can share with its insured. Telemedicine consultations, in-personconsultation scheduling, translations services, secure messaging, andvarious other features may be offered by the health insurance company toits insured via the telemedicine platform.

From the healthcare provider's perspective, the telemedicine platformprovides customized and distinct online clinics for each of his or herpatients, regardless of who the patient's employer is or who insures thepatient (i.e., the payer). A provider may effectively have hundreds ofdistinct online clinics—one for each insurance company and employer withwhom he or she is affiliated. For example, the healthcare provider mayhave a first online clinic with various services, prices, rules, etc.for a small business with 30 employees. The same healthcare provider mayoffer steep discounts and a limited number of services to customers of aparticular health insurance company. Accordingly, healthcare providermay have a distinct online clinic accessible to customers of thatparticular health insurance company. The healthcare provider may partnerwith multiple employers, health insurance companies, and/or providernetworks within a single health insurance company, each of which may befacilitated by a distinct online clinic.

However, the telemedicine platform may provide a unifying schedulingplatform and a unifying access portal for the healthcare provider. Thus,while each patient may see a different subset of offerings, prices andavailability, the healthcare provider is able to agnostically tend toeach patient through a single access portal and view scheduledtelemedicine and in-person consultations in a single calendar. Theunifying provider interface greatly simplifies the experience for thehealthcare provider.

In some embodiments, a healthcare provider may view standard oracceptable rates set by employers and/or health insurance companies whendetermining what rates and services they would like to add to themarketplace of provider services. In some embodiments, a hospital withmultiple providers with various specialties may add various services tothe marketplace at various prices without necessarily associating eachservice with an individual provider. The hospital may choose to set therates and terms of each service to fit within predefined guidelines setby an insurance company or employer so that they can be automatically(or at least considered) for inclusion in the sub-marketplace of theinsurance company or employer.

Similarly, a single provider may decide to set his or her rates to fitwithin guidelines that will enable him or her to be included in thesub-marketplace of a specific employer and/or health insurance company.In some embodiments, a provider or group of providers may submit varyingterms for various services depending on the size of the employer orhealth insurance company. For instance, a provider may be willing tooffer substantial discounts to be part of the sub-marketplace offered byan employer of 3000 employees, but charge higher prices for a smallbusiness with only 10 employees based, for example, on the uncertaintyof getting paid by the small business.

Another benefit for healthcare providers and/or their patients may bethe ability for provider-to-provider consultations supported and paidfor by the patient, employer, or health insurance company. For example,a patient may initiate a telemedicine consultation with a generalpractice family doctor. The patient may be having negative symptoms witha particular antidepressant medication. Rather than refer the patient toa specialist, which might require the patient to relay extensive amountsof redundant information to the specialist in order for the specialistto make an informed recommendation, the family doctor may initiate aseparate provider-to-provider consultation. The family doctor mayquickly obtain a recommendation from the specialist. The telemedicineplatform described herein allows for both the family doctor and thespecialist to charge an appropriate fee for their services, therebyencouraging the most efficient treatment of patients.

In such a model, a neuro-specialist may offer only provider-to-providerservices as part of a sub-marketplace of a particular employer. Theneuro-specialist may agree to be on call for provider-to-providerneurological questions in exchange for a flat monthly fee. Theneuro-specialist may refuse to directly interact with patients and/oroffer other services and varying prices and other terms forpatient-to-provider services.

The market place may be bi-directional in that, in addition to allowingproviders to offer services and associated prices, consumers (e.g.,individual patients, employers, health insurance companies, etc.) may beable to list the prices they are willing to pay for specific services.These consumers may provide various details such as the types ofservices they want or demand, the number individual patients in theirgroup, payment terms, guarantees, on-call fee arrangements, etc.Providers may evaluate these offerings and agree to join providernetworks (sub-marketplaces) that offer acceptable terms.

A provider who becomes part of a sub-marketplace for multiple employersand health insurance companies may have a single dashboard or portal tointeract with all of the patients, even though each of those patientsmay be using a different online clinic and see different pricing andservice options. For example, a first employer may agree to pay $45 fora 15-minute telemedicine consultation, while a second employer may agreeto pay $60 for a 30-minute telemedicine consultation. The systems andmethods described herein allow for a single provider to access a singledashboard or portal that is associated with tens or even hundreds ofdistinct telemedicine clinics with varying prices and service options.

The following example illustrates one possible workflow enabled by thesystems and methods described herein. The system may provide 700healthcare providers with a telemedicine clinic dashboard that allowsthem to conduct telemedicine consultations, schedule appoints, sharesecure messages and images, submit prescriptions to pharmacists,collaborate with other providers, and/or access any of the otherfeatures of the telemedicine platform described in the '102 application.Each of these 700 healthcare providers submits the healthcare servicesthey offer and associated terms (e.g., fees, discounts, billing rules,etc.). For instance, a dermatologist may offer 30-minute acne analysisvia a telemedicine consultation for $125. A first pediatrician may offera 20-minute general telemedicine consultation for $95. A secondpediatrician may offer a 45-minute general telemedicine consultation for$185.

An employer may request a customized telemedicine platform portal andsub-marketplace of services and providers for its 5,000 employees. Theemployer may manually select which of the 700 healthcare providers itwould like to include in its sub-marketplace that it makes available toits employees. Alternatively, a general analysis of claims for 5,000people, or a specific analysis of the historical claims of the 5,000employees of the specific employer, may be used to determine the typesof services needed. A subset of the 700 providers may be selected tomeet the needs of the employees based on the pricing and other terms theemployer is willing to pay for.

For example, an analysis of the historical claims may review that theemployees have used 580 of the 700 providers available in themarketplace, but 217 of those providers have relatively low ratings and35 of those providers are priced higher than the employer's thresholds.Accordingly, the system may automatically generate a sub-marketplace forthe employer to offer its employees via a customized portal thatincludes 328 providers (580−217−35=328).

Optionally, the system may determine that the employer's thresholds donot allow for any cardiac surgeons and recommend that a cardiac surgeonbe added to the sub-marketplace based on the expected healthcare needsof the employees even though the pricing terms may be outside of theemployer's established thresholds. Optionally, some providers may benotified that they were not included within the newly createdsub-marketplace because the services they offer and/or the terms ofthose services did not fit within the established guidelines of theemployer. Some providers may decide to modify their offerings in themarketplace to conform to the employer's guidelines. In someembodiments, the provider may be automatically added to thesub-marketplace based on conformance. In other embodiments, the employermay be notified that the provider now conforms to the guidelines any mayor may not elect to add them to the sub-marketplace.

In one embodiment, the entire marketplace of offerings from healthcareproviders is available to all users of the platform with default pricingand other terms. Employers and/or health insurance companies negotiate,through the telemedicine platform, with the providers to provide varyingdiscounts and/or other special terms of service. For example, a largeemployer may negotiate a 17% discount off retail price that is appliedto the fees charged by any provider that is part of the network forservices provided to an employee of that large employer.

Some of the infrastructure that can be used with embodiments disclosedherein is already available, such as: general-purpose computers,computer programming tools and techniques, digital storage media, andcommunications networks. A computer may include a processor, such as amicroprocessor, microcontroller, logic circuitry, or the like. Theprocessor may include a special-purpose processing device, such as anASIC, a PAL, a PLA, a PLD, a CPLD, a Field Programmable Gate Array(FPGA), or other customized or programmable device. The computer mayalso include a computer-readable storage device, such as non-volatilememory, static RAM, dynamic RAM, ROM, CD-ROM, disk, tape, magnetic,optical, flash memory, or other computer-readable storage medium.

Suitable networks for configuration and/or use, as described herein,include any of a wide variety of network infrastructures. Specifically,a network may incorporate landlines, wireless communication, opticalconnections, various modulators, demodulators, small form-factorpluggable (SFP) transceivers, routers, hubs, switches, and/or othernetworking equipment.

The network may include communications or networking software, such assoftware available from Novell, Microsoft, Artisoft, and other vendors,and may operate using TCP/IP, SPX, IPX, SONET, and other protocols overtwisted pair, coaxial, or optical fiber cables; telephone lines;satellites; microwave relays; modulated AC power lines; physical mediatransfer; wireless radio links; and/or other data transmission “wires.”The network may encompass smaller networks and/or be connectable toother networks through a gateway or similar mechanism.

Aspects of certain embodiments described herein may be implemented assoftware modules or components. As used herein, a software module orcomponent may include any type of computer instruction orcomputer-executable code located within or on a computer-readablestorage medium, such as a non-transitory computer-readable medium. Asoftware module may, for instance, comprise one or more physical orlogical blocks of computer instructions, which may be organized as aroutine, program, object, component, data structure, etc., that performone or more tasks or implement particular data types, algorithms, and/ormethods.

A particular software module may comprise disparate instructions storedin different locations of a computer-readable storage medium, whichtogether implement the described functionality of the module. Indeed, amodule may comprise a single instruction or many instructions, and maybe distributed over several different code segments, among differentprograms, and across several computer-readable storage media. Someembodiments may be practiced in a distributed computing environmentwhere tasks are performed by a remote processing device linked through acommunications network. In a distributed computing environment, softwaremodules may be located in local and/or remote computer-readable storagemedia. In addition, data being tied or rendered together in a databaserecord may be resident in the same computer-readable storage medium, oracross several computer-readable storage media, and may be linkedtogether in fields of a record in a database across a network.

The various functional components of the described systems and methodsmay be modeled as a functional block diagram that includes one or moreremote terminals, networks, servers, data exchanges, andsoftware/hardware/firmware modules configured to implement the variousfunctions, features, methods, and concepts described herein. In manyinstances, each application, embodiment, variation, option, service,and/or other component of the systems and methods described herein maybe implemented as a module of a larger system. Each module may beimplemented as hardware, software, and/or firmware, as would beunderstood by one of skill in the art for the particular functionality,and may be part of a larger physical system that may includecomputer-readable instructions, processors, servers, endpoint computers,and/or the like.

The embodiments of the disclosure can be understood by reference to thedrawings, wherein like parts are designated by like numerals throughout.The components of the disclosed embodiments, as generally described andillustrated in the figures herein, could be arranged and designed in awide variety of different configurations. Further, those of skill in theart will recognize that one or more of the specific details may beomitted, or other methods, components, or materials may be used. In somecases, operations are not shown or described in detail. Thus, thefollowing detailed description of the embodiments of the systems andmethods of the disclosure is not intended to limit the scope of thedisclosure, as claimed, but is merely representative of possibleembodiments.

FIG. 1A illustrates a block diagram 100 of three telemedicine clinics(115, 120, and 125) being generated that corresponding to three nationalprovider identifier (NPI) numbers 110, according to one embodiment. Atelemedicine platform or stand-alone system may include an automatictelemedicine clinic generation (ATCG) system configured to identify oneor more providers. An ATCG system may, for example, be embodied as aserver implementing computer instructions. Example approaches foridentifying each provider include using a national provideridentification (NPI) number, and employer number, a tax identificationnumber, a social security number, or the other unique identifier.

The ATCG system may automatically generate a telemedicine clinic ondemand, for each provider associated with a specific insurance companyor employer (or other payer), for each provider associated with aspecific healthcare facility, for each provider associated with aspecific employer, or for every provider within a specific geographic orpolitically-defined region. For example, in one embodiment an ATCGsystem may create a telemedicine clinic for every provider in the UnitedStates or some other geographic or politically defined region based onNPI number.

The ATCG system may generate a plurality of telemedicine clinics foreach provider with default configuration settings that may besubsequently customized by the provider. For each provider, atelemedicine clinic may be automatically generated for each insurancecompany or employer (or other payer, such as a union, consortium, club,etc.) associated with the ATCG system. In some embodiments, the systemmay generate a telemedicine clinic on behalf of a provider for eachinsurance company or employer associated with the provider.

In some embodiments, the system may generate a telemedicine clinic onbehalf of a provider for each insurance company or employer associatedwith a geographic region relevant to the provider. In some embodiments,the system may generate a telemedicine clinic on behalf of a providerfor each insurance company or employer known to support some form oftelemedicine. For example, for a provider practicing in Chicago, Ill.,the ATCG system may be configured to auto-populate, auto-generate,and/or generate on demand a distinct telemedicine clinic for one or morelocally available health insurance companies and one or more largeemployers in the area that may not use a traditional health insurancecompany to provide healthcare to their employees.

Specifically illustrated in FIG. 1A, a customizable telemedicine clinicis generated for each of three providers (115, 120, and 125) based ontheir NPIs 110 for a single health insurance company (Choice Health).The system populates each provider's telemedicine clinic (115, 120, and125) with the provider's unique offerings and with pricing terms forChoice Health (that may be subsequently customized).

FIG. 1B illustrates a simplified display 115 of the services offered bythe provider associated with the first NPI number in FIG. 1A for theChoice Health insurance company. As illustrated, the first provider mayoffer three types of “quick consult” visits for $29 each.

FIG. 1C illustrates a simplified display 120 of the services offered bythe provider associated with the second NPI number in FIG. 1A for theChoice Health insurance company. As illustrated, the second provider mayoffer four types of “quick consult” visits for $29 each.

FIG. 1D illustrates a simplified display 125 of the services offered bythe provider associated with the third NPI number in FIG. 1A for theChoice Health insurance company. As illustrated, the third provider mayoffer four types of “quick consult” visits for $49 each. For instance,the third provider may be a specialist and therefor offer uniqueservices at an elevated price.

FIG. 2 provides a graphical illustration 200 of the types of entitiesfor which a unique telemedicine clinic may be created. In variousembodiment, they system may generate a unique telemedicine clinic onbehalf of a provider for each of the various entities. In FIG. 2,example entities for which telemedicine clinics could be generated areshown as BlueCross BlueShield, Cigna, UnitedHealthcare, Marriot Hotels,and Aetna. Each of these is merely an example and no affiliation,ownership or rights to the trademarks is implied or suggested by thisapplication. Specifically, the respective tradenames and service marksin FIG. 2 are owned by the respective companies and are not necessarilyaffiliated with the Azova™ platform.

In some embodiments, the system generates unique telemedicine clinics onbehalf of a provider to accommodate each entity's uniquely contractedpricing and approved services. According to various embodiments, theATCG system may include a database with contracted pricing and available(e.g., reimbursable) services offered by one or more payers (e.g.,insurers, patients themselves, health savings account managers,insurance companies, employers, unions, corporations, non-profitentities, charities, hospitals, etc.).

A payer may be anybody who is obligated to and/or may for some otherreason reimburse or directly pay for the healthcare costs of apatient—including the patient themselves. A provider is frequentlydescribed herein as being a single healthcare practitioner or serviceprovider; however, it is appreciated that in each instance in which theterm “provider” is used, the term “provider” may be a group ofproviders, such as doctor's office or hospital.

FIG. 3 illustrates a graphical representation 200 of a provider (Dr.Demo) associated with four auto-generated telemedicine clinics 305, 307,309, and 311. Each company, such as an insurance company or anotheremployer, may have different contracted rates, premiums, deductibles, orco-pays for various telemedicine services offered by Dr. Demo. Aspreviously noted, the examples of Aetna, United Healthcare, BlueCrossBlueShield, and Cigna are used in the illustrations throughout but arenot necessarily affiliated with the Azova™ platform and the ownership ofeach of these marks is reserved by the respective companies.

Some insurance companies may not reimburse certain types of activitieswhen done via telemedicine. Accordingly, the ATCG system may createunique telemedicine clinics 305, 307, 309, and 311 for each contractedpayer. However, in various embodiments, the provider (Dr. Demo) may seethem all through a unified portal and integrate all of the informationfrom each of the individual telemedicine clinics into unified EHRsystems, billing systems, scheduling system, etc. The ATCG system mayintegrate with any EHR so providers can offer telehealth services topatients from any payer or business at a contracted rate with a seamlessworkflow using all of their existing EHR.

Thus, from the perspective of Dr. Demo, he runs a single clinic andagnostically treats patients regardless of who the ultimate payer maybe. From the perspective of the patient, they see a telemedicine portaland offered services that are covered by their insurance company andthat are available to them at contracted prices. From the perspective ofthe insurance company, the healthcare provider has a telemedicine portalcustomized to their approved services and contracted rates.

An integrated, unified or connected billing, scheduling, and/or EHRsystem may facilitate a unified approach from Dr. Demo's vantage point,but uniquely bill each insurance company or employer based on contractedrates. While Dr. Demo may see a scheduled telemedicine session on acalendar, selecting the session may automatically launch the correcttelemedicine clinic 305, 307, 309, and 311 and connect him to thepatient.

The ATCG system may charge each provider, insurance company, otherpayer, facility, and/or patient a one-time fee, a monthly fee, or ausage-based fee. Other fee and billing arrangements are contemplated asare known in the art for sales of products, services, andsoftware-as-a-service.

FIG. 4 illustrates a simplified screenshot 400 of a provider's uniquetelemedicine portal for patients with ABC insurance, according to oneembodiment. As illustrated, a unique uniform resource locator (URL)address may be auto-generated and registered with ICANN through a domainname registrar for each provider's online clinic, for each payer, and/orfor each employer. The actual implementation of the telemedicineservices and products may be implemented through the provider's EHR or atelemedicine platform, like the Azova™ platform and/or as detailed inthe '102 application.

FIG. 5 illustrates a simplified screenshot 500 of the same provider'sunique telemedicine portal for patients with United insurance, accordingto one embodiment. As illustrated, the same provider may have anotherunique URL associated with a different insurance company. A patientaccessing the URL may select the quick consult by clicking on the “Go”button 510 to instantly launch a telemedicine consultation with Dr.Eberting. In other embodiments, the “Go” button 510 may direct thepatient to a scheduling interface to schedule an appointment with Dr.Eberting. As previously described Dr. Eberting may have tens or evenhundreds of unique URLs and/or telemedicine clinics. However, on thebackend, each of these telemedicine clinics is associated with a singleunified portal for the provider.

Each of the portals (FIG. 4 for ABC and FIG. 5 for United Healthcare)may be customized based on the services that the insurance companyapproves, supports, and/or covers and/or for which they have differentcontracted rates. Thus, in the illustrated embodiments, a “QuickConsult” may involve different services or the same services atdifferent prices. In some embodiments, no price may be shown because theservices may be covered completely by the payer. In other embodiments,the price shown may be associated with the deductible, copay, orco-insurance that the patient will be required to pay.

FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram 600 of a customized telemedicineportal automatically generated based on the Choice Health PreferencePlan, according to various embodiments. As illustrated, the ATCG systemmay auto-generate unique clinics for providers that reflect individualhealth plans offered by the payer or business. In various embodiments,appointments may be uniformly managed by the provider from a dashboard,regardless of the number of payers or businesses for which the providerhas a telemedicine clinic.

FIG. 7 illustrates a simplified screenshot 700 of a provider's unifiedelectronic health record (EHR) combing information from all of his orher unique telemedicine clinics, according to one embodiment. The ATCGsystem may connect with a provider's existing scheduling platform orinclude a unifying scheduling portal to allow the provider to manage allscheduling for all of his or her telemedicine clinics from a singledashboard. Similarly, as illustrated, the provider's EHR, pharmacymanagement system, radiology information system, and/or the like may beintegrated or interface with the ATCG system via an applicationprogramming interface (API).

FIG. 8 illustrates a simplified screenshot 800 of a provider's scheduleintegrated with information from all of the provider's uniquetelemedicine clinics, according to one embodiment. As illustrated,scheduled appointments may appear as a telehealth visit. In variousembodiments, various additional information may be accessible, such ascontracted rates, required co-pays, insurers, etc.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example portal 900 for initiating a telemedicineconsultation, according to one embodiment. As illustrated, afterproviding personal information and/or identifying the patient, an“e-visit” button 910 may be selected to initiate the telemedicinesession. In various embodiments, the telemedicine session may beinitiated by the provider or by the patient and any of the variousfeatures and functionalities described in the '102 application may beavailable.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example of a telemedicine video consultation1000, according to one embodiment. Examples and features availableduring a telemedicine video, such as document sharing, recording, etc.are detailed and described in the '102 application.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example chart 1100 illustrating auto-generatedclinics that become active when claimed and optionally customized by aprovider. As previously described, in one embodiment or implementation,the ATCG system may auto-generate clinics for all providers within ageographic region. Before each of these clinics is actually availablefor patient use, providers may be claim and activate them. In oneembodiment, it is free for the provider to activate or claim a clinicand it becomes immediately available for use. Each time the clinic isused, a surcharge or fee may be assessed to the patient, provider, orpayer. Once a clinic has been claimed by a provider, a search page maybe automatically populated for each payer or business associated withthe provider who has claimed his/her online clinic. Patients can thenaccess telehealth services from their own, established care providers.

FIG. 12 illustrates a user interface 1200 for a provider of any of awide variety of professional service types to a register for the AZOVA™platform.

FIG. 13 illustrates another embodiment of a user interface 1300 for aprovider of any of a wide variety of professional service types to aregister for the AZOVA™ platform.

FIG. 14 illustrates a user interface 1400 for assigning individualsvarious roles with the AZOVA™ platform, according to variousembodiments.

FIG. 15 illustrates a user interface 1500 for customizing andconfiguring appointment types, according to various embodiments.

FIG. 16A illustrates a user interface 1600 with various appointmenttypes, prices, and options for customization.

FIG. 16B illustrates an extension 1650 of the user interface in FIG. 16Awith additional options for customization of services, prices, and/orother terms that can be made available within a marketplace.

FIG. 17A illustrates a user interface 1700 for offering a conciergepackage provider service on the marketplace that offers unlimitedin-office visits and face-to-face video consultations. As illustrated,various pricing options can be customized by via the user interface1700.

FIG. 17B illustrates an extension 1750 of the user interface in FIG. 17Awith additional customization options.

This disclosure is to be regarded in an illustrative rather than arestrictive sense, and all such modifications are intended to beincluded within the scope thereof. Likewise, benefits, other advantages,and solutions to problems have been described above with regard tovarious embodiments. However, benefits, advantages, solutions toproblems, and any element(s) that may cause any benefit, advantage, orsolution to occur or become more pronounced are not to be construed as acritical, a required, or an essential feature or element.

What is claimed is:
 1. A distributed computing system for automaticallygenerating telemedicine clinics, comprising; a provider identificationsystem to identify a provider; a payer identification system to identifymultiple payers associated with the provider; and a telemedicine clinicgeneration system to automatically create: a unique providertelemedicine clinic for each of the identified multiple payers such thatthe provider has multiple provider telemedicine clinics, wherein eachprovider telemedicine clinic allows customers associated with eachrespective payer to receive at least telemedicine consultations from theprovider; and a unified telemedicine portal that can be accessed by theprovider to at provide at least telemedicine consultations to eachcustomer via any one of the unique provider telemedicine clinics.
 2. Thedistributed computing system of claim 1, wherein the provider comprisesone of a doctor, dentist, and ophthalmologist.
 3. The distributedcomputing system of claim 1, wherein the provider comprises multiplehealthcare practitioners collaborating in a healthcare facility.
 4. Thedistributed computing system of claim 1, wherein each of the uniqueprovider telemedicine clinics allows for customers to scheduleappointments with the provider, and wherein the unified telemedicineportal unifies the scheduled appointments into a single schedule for theprovider.
 5. The distributed computing system of claim 1, wherein theprovider identification system identifies providers based on a nationalprovider identification (NPI) number.
 6. The distributed computingsystem of claim 1, wherein at least one of the payers comprises a healthinsurance company, and wherein the customers associated with the healthinsurance company comprise employers.
 7. The distributed computingsystem of claim 1, wherein at least one of the payers comprises a healthinsurance company, and wherein the customers associated with the healthinsurance company comprise individual insureds.
 8. The distributedcomputing system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the payerscomprises a non-insurance related business entity, and wherein thecustomers associated with the business entity comprise employees of thebusiness entity.
 9. A system, comprising; an electronic user interfaceto allow each of a plurality of providers to offer healthcare servicesvia an online marketplace with customizable terms of service viaprovider telemedicine clinics, wherein each telemedicine clinic isassociated with a unique insurance company and at least some providersoffer healthcare services via multiple telemedicine clinics; anelectronic server interface to provide a business entity with access toa list of the healthcare services and associated terms of serviceoffered by the plurality of providers; an electronic user interface toallow the business entity to make an electronic selection of a subset ofthe plurality of providers for inclusion in an online marketplace; amarketplace interface to avow the business entity to connect customersof the business with the selected subset of the plurality of providers;and a telemedicine platform to allow the customers of the businessentity to receive a telemedicine consultation from any one of theselected subset of the plurality of providers.
 10. The system of claim9, wherein the customizable terms of service include a customizableprice structure for one or more offered healthcare services.
 11. Thesystem of claim 9, wherein the business entity selects the subset of theplurality of providers for inclusion in the online marketplace bysetting threshold payment amounts for each of a plurality of healthcareservices.
 12. The system of claim 9, wherein the business entitycomprises a health insurance company.
 13. The system of claim 9, whereinthe business entity comprises manufacturing company.
 14. A method,comprising; displaying, via an electronic display, a marketplace ofhealthcare services available from each of a plurality of serviceproviders; receiving, from a first business entity, a selection of afirst subset of the plurality of service providers; generating, via aserver, a first sub-marketplace for the first business entity thatincludes healthcare services available from the first subset of theplurality of service providers; receiving, from a second businessentity, a selection of a second subset of the plurality of serviceproviders: generating, via the server, a second sub-marketplace for thesecond business entity that includes healthcare services available fromthe second subset of the plurality of service providers, wherein atleast some of the service providers are included in both the firstsub-marketplace and the second sub-marketplace; rendering, for displayon an electronic display; a first graphical user interface with thehealthcare services available from the first subset of the plurality ofservice providers to a first customer of the first business entity, anda second graphical user interface with the healthcare services availablefrom the second subset of the plurality of service providers to a secondcustomer of the second business entity.
 15. The method of claim 14,wherein the sub-marketplace is branded or co-branded with the businessentity.
 16. The method of claim 14, wherein the business entitycomprises an employer, and wherein the customer comprises an employee ofhe employer.
 17. The method of claim 14, wherein the business entitycomprises a health insurance company, and wherein the customer comprisesan insured of the health insurance company.
 18. The method of claim 14,wherein the business entity comprises one of a city, state, and county,and wherein the customer comprises a citizen of the city, state, orcounty.
 19. The method of claim 14, wherein receiving the selection ofthe subset of the plurality of service providers comprises receivingprice thresholds for each of a plurality of services and wherein theselection of the subset of the plurality of service providers isautomatically performed to include only those service providers offeringservices within the received price thresholds.
 20. The method of claim14, further comprising: receiving, by the first customer, a selection ofone of the healthcare services available from the first subset of theplurality of service providers via the first sub- marketplace; andconnecting, via a video conference, the first customer with a providerassociated with the customer-selected healthcare service.